GetBackers Drabbles
by incandescens
Summary: A collection of GetBackers drabbles. Some are canon, some are noncanon, some are AU, some are crossover.
1. looking into the abyss

**looking into the abyss**

"It occurs to me," Makubex said one day, "that I have no idea about how far this obedience of yours goes."

"Far enough," Kagami said, and that was the end of that day's talk.

"I wonder," Makubex said, a week later, "how much I can trust a man who says what you say."

"Farther than Fudou Takuma," Kagami answered, and tilted his head so that his earring swung and glinted.

"Perhaps," Makubex finally said, a month after that, "I should try pushing."

"The only true power lies in making others go farther than they want to," Kagami agreed.

Makubex nodded.

---


	2. eye of the beholder

**eye of the beholder**

"It's ridiculous," Hevn says. "Why, I'm hardly dressed for femininity at all. Look at me. Just look at me. This check shirt -- it says lumberjack, it says male, and even if I've knotted it across my chest to try and soften the impression a bit, it still very much says masculine. And just look at these jeans. Coarse. Tight. Denim. So very denim. I mean, this sort of thing is all very well for someone like Himiko who really can't be bothered to wear clothes that make it clear she's a woman, but -- is something the matter, boys?"

---


	3. AU: Hastur Hastur Hastaiiiee!

**Hastur Hastur Hastaiieee!**

"Put it down," Ban said automatically, and smacked Ginji's hands away from the heavy book without bothering to look.

"Ban-chan . . ." Ginji whined. "It's interesting. I mean, sure it seems to be bound in human skin and has this weird dark brown ink and it's all about things rising from the sea and great something lies dreaming and the stars being right, but . . ."

"No," Ban said firmly, and shoved the Necronomicon into the boot of the car.

"But . . ."

"You don't need to know," Ban repeated. For a moment his tongue flickered, forked.

---


	4. in dreams, despair

**in dreams, despair**

In her dreams, she passes the others in the upper layers of Hell; Kazuki and Juubei still embraced amid the endless winds, Hevn rolling stones with the avaricious, Shido tearing at flesh with the wrathful. Ginji is the only one not there.

Walking downwards, her guide familiar, so familiar, the serpent twisted round his arm now visible for all to see, she comes to the lake of boiling blood.

Doctor Jackal stands there, waist deep. The shimmering red light plays across his white skin as he looks up at the two of them and says, "Come in. I've been waiting."


	5. men don't wear dresses

**men don't wear dresses**

"It's a dress."

"No, it's a robe."

"It's a dress. It's a fucking _orange_ dress."

"He says it's a robe and I'm not going to argue with him."

"Why's he wearing a robe, anyhow?"

"He says that he's Enlightened because he's spent years in monasteries becoming sensitised to the deep meaningfulness of life."

"Then he rips the heads off intruders."

". . . well, yeah, but he says it's deeply meaningful."

"So who made him the 'robe'?"

"Kakei Sakura."

"And do Buddhist robes usually have lace trimming and petticoats?"

"No . . ."

"He's within earshot."

"Hey, Fudou! Nice robe!"

---


	6. AU: da da da dum!

**da da da dum**

The jarring cry echoed down the alley. "Ex-ter-min-ate!"

Ginji jumped out of the car, grinning. They'd found over the last five ambushes that his electricity made the _things_ fuse in a highly entertaining way. "Back in a moment, Ban-chan!"

Ban sighed, and turned to look at the bulky blue object which was crammed into the back of the car and sticking out of the hole in the roof. This had sounded like such an easy retrieval when Hevn had put the grinning man with the floppy hat and long scarf's request to them.

"No more police box retrievals," he muttered.

---


	7. falling into heaven

**falling into heaven**

Up there the stars circle in an endless whirl, irreconcilable with each other, shrouded by the clouds and smog of Tokyo. Himiko sits on her motorcycle by the side of the road, helmet tilted back, leaning on the handlebars, and envies them.

What would it be like, to burn endlessly but feel no pain from it? To turn and meet and pass and meet again, on ordained paths where nobody died of it?

Himiko dreams of being as light as her poisons and rising through the brightening air, breaking her bonds to the earth, shedding pain like flesh and darkness.

---


	8. AU: Taroticum: The Empress

**Taroticum: The Empress**

People die. She should be used to that by now.

Hevn sits up at her desk and rubs her eyes, taking care not to smear the makeup. Her laptop is full of images. She closes the files, one by one, saying a silent goodbye to each face as she does so.

Would it be different if she'd gone into Mugenjou with them? Well, she'll never know now, will she.

All that she will ever know is that none of them ever came out.

She rules a web of information that stretches across Japan, but her sleep is fertile with ghosts.


	9. a father's duty

**a father's duty**

They faced each other. The family resemblance was painfully clear in eyes, hair, faces, bodies; the careful posture, the smooth readiness for bloodshed.

"Well?" Ban challenged. "You ready for this, damn old man? I'm gonna take you to the cleaners. The invincible Ban-sama is gonna kick your shitty ass and show you how we do things down and dirty."

Der Kaiser sighed. "It's true. I had hoped it wasn't true, but -- my responsibility is clear. A father's duty."

"And what's that, old man?" Ban snorted.

Der Kaiser produced a foaming bucket. "Wash your mouth out with soap and water."

---


	10. into the house of death

**into the house of death**

. . . and he is falling backwards, down, into darkness; this time he knows there will be no resurrection. Asclepius has left him, his evil eye is gone, his powers are all used up. The magician is dying. Death has come into the world and cannot be avoided any longer, and even Ginji cannot find him here . . .

Fire explodes in his heart. His ribs creak with strain.

He opens his eyes, gasping with the effort, to see Ginji kneeling above him, haloed with electricity, warm hands still resting on his chest.

Raitei had come for him.

---


	11. craving a darkness

**craving a darkness**

Toshiki does not miss his heart. It was too much trouble. It still pains him, but he knows that the hunger which gnaws at him will soon be satisfied. In the meantime, Lucifer gives him what he needs. Meat and wine to feed his body, hatred to feed his spirit, power to feed his soul. This life would be hindered by a heart; therefore, he goes heartless.

As for Lucifer, his heart is in a coffin behind the altar, and soon he will join it; he awaits that moment with fond anticipation, already craving the blade that will pierce him.

---


	12. the oneeyed man is king

**the one-eyed man is king**

Fudou's dreams bulge like aneurysms and throb with blood, swelling around the single-eyed vision of his daily life and slowly strangling his thoughts. All those pretty, pretty images that make him lick his lips and swallow, all those happy thoughts, all those sweet tones of desperate begging that flood his mouth with the taste of blood.

He's saner than everyone else in Mugenjou. He doesn't delude himself. He knows precisely what he wants and he will have it.

He sits in a room of dust and shadows, toying with the dry bones of his hand, and listens for approaching footsteps.

---


	13. o lente, lente currite noctis equi!

**O lente, lente currite noctis equi!**

It is crowded in the car, and it smells; the fug of old cigarettes, the ripeness of days-old sweat, the tar that Ginji walked in a week ago and which still clings to his shoes.

Ginji snores, slow rippling snores that keep Ban from sleeping.

There's no real darkness here in Tokyo. Street lights glare orange against the cloud that covers the night sky. The headlights of passing cars flick by, briefly illuminating Ginji's hair and sleeping face.

Ban closes his eyes again, conscious of Ginji's head on his shoulder, and he thinks; let the morning wait a little longer.


	14. memories

**memories**

Memories are something you make, says the child, and looks up at the two older brothers that chance or fate has given her, and laughs for sheer delight, her future lying in front of her; it's so full of possibility, anything could happen, anything at all.

Memories are what you hold on to, says Himiko, because they define you, because however much pain they contain, they are catalysts; they are things which have changed you. The pain and the joy are a perfect blend, intertwined.

Lady Poison distils her memories into slow-seeping venom that fills her heart.

Drop.

By. 

Drop.

---


	15. swirling black lilies

**swirling black lilies**

This new Kazuki has drowning-pool eyes, dark and rich as his hair. He opens his arms for Toshiki (as Toshiki always dreamed) and he presses himself against Toshiki (as Toshiki always dreamed) and his lips are honey, his skin is soft, his kisses are warm, he's pulling Toshiki down to where the dark currents run in the river of blood and where the secret magic of the cards is written in flesh and bone and lives.

And Toshiki closes his eyes so that he cannot see the face of his lover, because the Kazuki he knew isn't there any more.

---


End file.
